ENNOVA. History of company and printer

Why am i writing

3D printers are now attracting many and many are thinking about creating their own product in this area. I am in favor of as many teams as possible doing this in Russia and I hope that the article will encourage someone to quit and just do it.

Background

Laziness is the engine of progress, no matter how strange it may sound, but many inventions were invented to make our lives easier. And so, with what it began: when I studied at the university, I had a small part-time job - I made drawings to order. Mostly my clients were negligent students. When the influx of orders often came across the same, but there was not enough time for everything. And somehow, talking to one of my friends, I told about my bad deeds - I was advised to buy a drawing machine. The prices for such a device were very biting. Floating on the Internet, I came across a homemade blog, it described how you can muddle such a stanch yourself. I got an idea and incidentally infected my classmate Cyril with such a project. With a budget of two scholarshipsand with a mountain of various pieces of iron and plywood from the garage we began to conjure, and by the summer of 2010, the devilish machine had started working.



We thought about the second machine after internship at the factory. It seemed interesting to us to make a CNC desktop milling machine ourselves. Having filled a lot of cones on the head from the previous work, we conceived a more thoughtful and reliable model. And only by the next summer was everything ready. The machine worked well on wood, milled aluminum a little and was very capricious on steel.




That same summer, our current leader, Iskander Mukhamedyarov, joined the team that had not yet formed. With him, we began to think over the commercial use of our machines. What we just didn’t try: we made custom-made badges, milled a wooden case for the iPhone, and even tried to make our own water cooling system for the PC.



At the end of 2011, we were at a rally of young entrepreneurs organized by the Navigator business club, and there we decided to radically change our work and focus on 3D printers. After analyzing our little experience and the knowledge that we had, we decided to build a RepRapPrusa 3D printer (special thanks to Adrian Bowyer). In December 2011, Russia was only looking for its audience on the topic of additive technologies, plastic extrusion. The most common open source model at that time was the notorious old Mendel . From it, the first steps began in the research, development and application of the studied technologies in its new development.

The sources were in the public domain, but at that time there was little information about this on Runet. Therefore, I had to constantly draw information from foreign sources.

Production start

It would seem, why take up the development of your own product when there are already many large players on the market, producing thousands of commercially successful products?

If an engineer sees errors, deficiencies in technology, he tries to correct them, to optimize everything. The second no less well-known open source was taken as a basis - the Darwin model. Actually, there are only two to this day, two fundamental models and a cardinal difference in them only in the arrangement of the axes. So all the models in today's FDM printer market in fact differ only in this. And then we can talk about faster printing, more stable operation, the largest area of ​​work, etc. And all these new gadgets, independent improvements and their introduction into their models is the improvement of RepRap technology. And each of these released models, obtained experimentally and carrying some kind of refinement, has the right to exist, we are deeply convinced of this.
After a while, it took to develop its own extruder, designed to solve the problem of clogging the nozzle, increasing the print area to the sizes required by the current market, but without losing stability, numerous experiments with the table (the task was to create a table without heating elements, but with a good enough interaction with plastic, so that the part does not go away during operation, but also does not stick tightly, like some existing analogues. In general, by trial and error, the pre-beta version of Russian 3D printer NOVA base. With impressive dimensions and weight: 400mm (width) x 540mm (depth) x 560mm (height); weight - 15kg. Regarding weight, you can quote one of the characters in the famous Guy Ricci film: “Heavy is good severity is reliable. ”And it really is in many ways



So, by the summer of 2013, we had already developed and assembled a trial version of the 3D printer - Base and began negotiations with a number of funds to finance our project. And then it started - participating in two qualifying rounds of Kazan IT Park, in the Technopark and CMIT “Idea” program,



and came to navigator \ campus . As a result, the Navigator angel fund invested in us. November 2013 can be considered the official date of the establishment of ENNOVA. Then we moved to the NavigatorCampus under construction and organized a production site.









Our first industrial creation:

Today

As a result, having implemented about 60 NOVA 3.5 machines, we proceeded to the development of a new series - the 3D-printer IRON . This machine was developed under a laconic concept - ease of use (the placement of all the working units of the model directly in front of a person helped here), unpretentiousness to work (aviation profiles - class!), Modular design (unscrew one screw and replace the extruder), watchable design (a kind of working horse on which you can plow and plow). And of course, the only 3D printer in Russia delivered in kit-kits (we decided to simplify it for serial assembly and made it easy for self-assembly - clap-clap and it’s ready, because all the tools are, of course, included!), As well with the possibility of installing two extruders.









Today, in addition to regular sales, we are actively supplying both educational institutions and enterprises (about 70 units were pre-ordered at the end of the 3rd quarter of this year).

Why did we do just that

For us, 3D printing has a huge role in the production of all types of products. This technology does not replace, but complements traditional production technologies. Yes, and what a sin to hide - we are fans of modern technology, and to develop production in an area that allows at least a little closer to the future - damn cool! That is why our team always has a lot of projects based on 3D printing (sometimes it resembles the work of a design office): a 3D construction printer, the development of modern “smart” prostheses (that's where technology convergence is really needed - an exciting project), bioprinting, educational centers for 3D technologies (training in 3D printing technology, modeling, as well as a service center for 3D printers). The 3D printer is really a tool for us to implement our own ideas and projects.




Constantly participating in festivals and exhibitions, we strive to show our developments as part of the promotion among 3D printers. Therefore, we are not limited to participation in festivals, but also conduct our own educational seminars.








I would also like to note our last trip to Seliger. Our communication with Nigel Ekland was especially cool - we have made great progress in the field of prosthetics.




Many people know that the creator of the first working 3D printer is Chuck Hall, who applied for a patent for the "apparatus for the production of three-dimensional objects by means of stereolithography" in 1986. But as a kid I read a fantastic book by Vladimir Mikhailovich Mikhanovsky “Hotel Sigma” in 1974. A quote from there - “the synthesis machine did not work out, was capricious, did not want to act according to the compiled program. The force fields were entangled, the molecules self-willed, the particles of the working substance injected into the installation did not accumulate at all where they should, and the predetermined model as a result was distorted beyond recognition. He conjured, he served as a priest: varied electromagnetic fields, mixed various substances in various proportions. The smallest particles of these substances, obeying the action of the force fields of the synthesis machine, should obediently line up, forming a model of the object. " 3D printers predicted much earlier!



Our team has a lot of work and interesting projects.





We see that 3D printing can be used not only for prototyping, but can also be used to create final samples that are individual, complex, polymaterial and combine different production technologies. Therefore, our staff is growing and we constantly need new people. If you are interested (to implement your insidious plans with us), write to us by mail or through the form on the site. Peace!

PS If it is interesting to learn more about the IRON design, write and we will tell in the next article. In late August, we are going to make it opensource.